


Smarter Sentiments

by avrelia



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU, F/M, Maiko AU week 2020, most characters are mentioned only, some will be added later in order of appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:13:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: Mai and Zuko haven’t seen each for eight years following their breakup at the end of high school when Zuko as a junior assistant attorney from the Capital city is sent to oversee an investigation of a murder of nice old lady  - to a town where Mai lives.It's the modern day Avatar world.
Relationships: Mai/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 50
Kudos: 41





	1. Sleepy Boring Town

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for AU Maiko week. While I cannot follow all the prompts, I tried to reference them in the story.

He didn’t like this town from the very first sight. 

It was one of those little towns that where forever boring, and then suddenly became popular with the tourists and acquired a veneer of “quaint” without stopping to be boring. He’d never been there before, but he’d visited a number of similar little towns, each one the same. This one, however, had the promise to be the worst. The only thing that sustained his spirits was the hope that his mission will be a short one. Get in, oversee the investigation of the murder, do whatever he could, maybe kick some slowpokes into diligence, and get out. 

The murder victim was an elderly lady, an owner of a puppet theater in another province. Here on vacation during the cheap season, just like other seniors. Presumed robbery. Most likely the robbers were local. Most likely nobody cared to catch them. Poor old Hama would never get her justice. 

Well, who would? It was the wrong world for justice. Or, maybe the wrong time.

He pondered at his boss, Assistant Attorney Zhao. Zhao’s career was raising spectacularly, until the whole thing with Zuko’s father happened. Zhao escaped jail since any of his connections to the crimes were not proven, but he blamed Zuko for all his broken hopes. And he was right, of course, but working under his command proved excruciatingly wasteful. He was only sent on fools’ errant and given only impossible tasks, like this one. Why did Zhao even care about this particular murder?

He checked in the hotel, the modern building of glass where it was so much easier to be another half anonymous guest than in any little cute bed and breakfast places currently in fashion. Faceless, useful, efficient, familiar. 

Then he dropped by his main destination – the homicide department at the local police. Colonel Shinu was tired and polite and as unhappy to see him, as he was unhappy to see the Colonel Shinu. There was no reason why they would be happy to see a junior assistant attorney sent from Capital City to poke at their affairs. ‘Nobody expects the Dai Li inquisition’, as Sokka loved to say. Tomorrow he was to appear at 9 am, and talk to detective Chan. He squinted hearing the name. There were a number of Chans running around the Fire Nation, but with his bad luck it would be the Chan that had that stupid history with his sister.

There was nothing else to do right now. And too early to go to bed. And he wouldn’t be able to talk to any of his friends yet. They lived all in the Republic city, following their passions there, and Zuko was happy they could do what they wanted, but he missed them all terribly. At least he would be able talk to them later, during their game run.

He picked up a cigarette and looked at it with the distaste. He didn’t even like it anymore, but it seemed like a thing to do. He sighed, concentrated, and made a small fire at his finger tip. The legends said, the firebenders of old days could breath fire and burn down the cities. All he could to was to light a cigarette. Everything was getting worse.

He went for a walk around the town. The town didn’t look any better in the twilight. It’s reliance on shabby chic aesthetics didn’t do it any favors. The mountains he could see around the town were okay, as far as mountains went. He saw better. He walked to the beach. The ocean was the same as everywhere else at this time of year – cold and gray and mean. The wind pierced his jacket and threw a handful of sand in his face. A torn poster announcing the upcoming tour of the best circus in the Fire Nation flew by, narrowly missing his face. The waves tried to wet his boots, and he thought he heard them laughing. No, it was just the mood. There was no one on the beach, except him and one idiot surfer in the wet-suit braving the weather with his stupid brightly painted board.

Cold and hungry, he walked back. Searching for a place to warm up, he eschewed the rating apps and decided to rely on his luck, out of perverse stubbornness. One sign caught his attention: “The Black Panda Goat” so he strode right to it, opened the door, walked inside, and froze. His horrible luck didn’t betray him. A girl, no, young woman, dressed in black with hints of crimson, with hair in the stupid buns, stood behind the counter with a bored expression. 

Her expression didn’t change a bit when she greeted him.

“Hello Zuko, how may I help you?”

“Mai…”

Of course, Mai recognized Zuko immediately. Even without his rather noticeable scar, she knew his face too well. The very first moment though she thought him a hallucination – what would actual Zuko do here? But the inescapable reality of his presence hit her with a nuclear blast.

He, too obviously shocked to think he was looking for her here, got his tea and left without saying more than barely polite thank you. 

Mai was left alone to contemplate the situation.

So. Zuko was here. 

They haven’t seen each other for eight years, since the school graduation and their break up. He looked good. He looked pretty good, in buttonned down shirt and jacket, with stupidly long hair in a traditional top knot. Whoever wore top knot these days? Who he think he is? A Fire lord? And did he ever cut his hair in the past eight years? 

Ridiculous. That’s how he looked.

Her vision doubled. Alongside with fresh image of a young man, a memory of a young boy appeared. The way she saw him first time, when she was invited to a playdate with Azula - a boy with a painfully sincere face, so unlike anyone she ever saw, a boy who couldn’t lie or hide anything. Of course, nobody could hide much from Azula, at least until Mai figured out how not to react to anything. But it was all later, her memory was all over the place. 

The first playdate – she was more curious about her new friend, and her family that her parents insisted she had to make a perfect impression to. Their family were both good and rich, except Azula’s family was better and richer, and their fathers worked together on something big, and had great ambitions to make that big even bigger. Her mother was concerned with their social standing, which could always be improved with right associations. 

Things went well. Relatively, because they weren’t well, actually, but they seemed okay at the time. Then Zuko and Azula’s parents had a very nasty divorce, and their mom was legally barred from seeing he kids ever again, on threat of imprisonment. And Azula was convinced it was all her mother’s scheme to get rid of her – on the hindsight it probably was one of the first signals about Azula’s state of mind. Then they all just pretended that everything was normal. Pretending that everything was normal was a usual state Mai grew up in, anyway.

Then Zuko’s father burned him. Mai still didn’t know why exactly and how that happened. Zuko hadn’t ever wanted to talk about it, and Azula usually just said that Zuko was a bad son and had to be punished. But at that time Iroh, the older brother of Zuko’s father, stepped in, took Zuko and took off somewhere for a couple of years. For healing and whatnot. 

Then her own father decided that they had to live in some stupid place in Earth Kingdom desert for work reasons. They all hated it, especially her mother who had just had Tom-Tom and really didn’t relish living in a desert with a baby. Mai just took it as an opportunity to practice her non-caring and knife-throwing skills. 

A customer came in, throwing Mai off her reverie. She made tea for an old lady, an acquaintance of her great aunt Li Min. Most of all local ladies in this town were acquaintances of her great aunt, and quite a lot of those were also her relatives. Old ladies usually traveled in flocks here, and sure enough, another old lady came by, ordered her tea, and joined the first one. Mai felt that she is fast turning into one herself, never mind she was in her mid-twenties. Soon enough, in another three decades, she’d invite Ty Lee to live here, and they will be walking on the promenade, criticizing their nieces and nephews. Ty Lee would probably have a couple of dozens of those. 

Shoji reappeared from wherever he was hiding from his work. She nodded to him and went for a break herself. She went outside, lit a cigarette, and got back into her memories. 

In high school they were together, now in the same grade despite Zuko being one year older. Mai’s family returned, and Zuko returned with his uncle, and everything seeming was back to normal – she, Ty Lee, Azula and Zuko. She and Zuko began dating, to no one’s surprise and without any drama, it seemed. It only seemed. She couldn’t say even now, how and why – but it felt good to be together. Mai didn’t have to pretend how much she hated everything around her, and Zuko was perpetually angry, but they managed to catch moments of quiet here and there, moments of comfort, satisfying a hunger for something better than their normal life was.

Then things blew up. 

Thanks to whatever Zuko discovered, his father went to prison for life, and so did her father. They deserved it, Mai knew, and was happy to never have to see either. But… Zuko’s uncle again stepped in and managed to preserve their family fortune, so he and Azula still had their money, and other family properties were still there. Mai wasn’t that lucky. They lost everything except a bit of real estate in their hometown that her mother got as an inheritance. Here. 

And when everything looked to be settling down again, Azula blew up. Or had her psychotic break, whatever one wanted to call it. Imagined herself a fire lord, of all things, and one thing led to another, and.. Zuko got hurt, other people got hurt… Mai winced and shuddered.

At least they didn’t have to be friends anymore. 

But she and Zuko were together through all of that. Well. Mostly together. It’s when he announced he’d be going to the University of Ba Sing Se, and she couldn’t follow him, that they were done. 

The smoking break was over. Mai checked her messages. Ty Lee was excited. The school district reminded her that this week they wouldn’t need her to substitute but please stay available. 

She went back inside. There was nothing more to reminisce about. 

In her second year at the Capital City college she and Ty Lee befriended an exchange student from Ba Sing Se University, a girl named Suki. From Her Mai learned that Zuko had a great time there, studying, dating, doing stupid student stuff, having a close group of friends that Suki was a part of. And that was pretty much it. She was happy for him, but their lives diverged irrevocably. 

After graduation she moved here, following her mother and Tom Tom. And there she was, quite fine on her own, all things considered.

Mai went back behind the counter and watched Shoji being disgustingly cheerful and pleasant to the customers. She didn’t resent his cheerfulness, because it left her free to be in any mood she wished. But she did wonder at a state of mind of a young man that was so ridiculously optimistic. She complained to On Ji once, but On Ji laughed and said that life will dampen all enthusiasm eventually, and they should enjoy someone’s happiness while they can. 

Mai agreed, after some consideration. It’s not that she expected to ever be happy herself. She was content being content.


	2. The Hopeless Case

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko tries to solve Hama's murder and talk to Mai. He manages to talk to Mai - about Hama's murder, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 prompt was "Cyberpunk"
> 
> The only punk here is Toph, and she has cool cyber gear. Because she is still super rich.

He sat by the desk and looked dejectedly at the piles of papers thrown in front of him. Why in this age of technological marvels he got all those reports on paper, most of them in illegible handwriting?

Detective Chan dropped all the materials related to his case and disappeared, scowling. He wondered, whether Chan is still trying to get to him, getting revenge after Azula’s short-lived obsession? Zuko felt sorry for Chan then, but it could hardly leave that much of a scar. Did his boss knew about his and Chan’s history and was setting him up? Or was it another instance of his spectacular bad luck?

He sighed and started to read the reports. It didn’t go well. He kept thinking about his yesterday’s encounter. He actually went to that tea shop again that morning, but there was another girl, in the neat orange shirt, looking frazzled. When he asked about Mai she looked as if she suspected him of ill intent, but said Mai will be working the afternoon shift. 

He focused back on his work. The basic known information stayed the same no matter how many reports he read. Hama, an elderly owner of a mildly successful puppet theater in one of the central provinces, came here for a week of vacation. Stayed in a hotel popular with elderly vacationers, took long walks on the promenade, drank tea in quaint tea rooms, did whatever old ladies were doing here, then one morning was discovered dead, smothered by a pillow in her sleep. Apparently robbed, as there was nothing valuable found in her hotel room. 

The local police really did all they could. Traced her interactions in the town, her daily routine, bothered all the hotel stuff and found nothing amiss in their actions. There was security cameras footage available, but it didn’t show anything useful. 

It couldn’t be an accident, that was obvious, but whoever did it had a really good plan. It didn’t look like a robbery. It looked like a mess of a case, and now Zuko was sure Zhao had set him up for a failure by sending here. 

Well, may be he’d fail. Not for the first time, really. But not without trying to solve it first. And Zuko busied himself again in the papers, security feeds and his thoughts. There was something in here, something he could grab at. 

Detective Chan re-appeared, scowling now rather cheerfully. “Are you on a hunger strike or you forgot about lunch?”

Zuko blinked several times and looked at the time. 3 pm. “I forgot. Trying to find a thread here.”

“Any luck?”

“You did a thorough job. I can see you got everything there was to get.”

“But?”

“There should be something else. I feel it. As if it dances just beyond my vision.”

“Good luck catching it then. I actually do want to solve it and hoped maybe a fresh pair of eyes would notice what we missed. I guess we needed a better pair of eyes that yours.”

“Thanks for the confidence.”

Chan shrugged. “As I said, we want this case solved. It stinks, but we are at a dead end. I know we are not seeing something. Both I and Detective Ming had our informants at their wits’s end, too. If it were a robbery, it should be local talents, and someone should have heard something. Or heard of something similar. But local crimes all had a very different feel, you know?”

Zuko nodded. Then he took a long look at Detective Chan. “How did you end up here, anyway?”

Chan smirked. “My grandfather is an admiral. My father is in Air Force. I wanted something not military, but still with the shiny uniform. And they didn’t want me in the Capital. I am fine here, though. The mountains are actually pretty neat.”

“Well, I am glad they make you happy.” Zuko didn’t really know what to say. His memory of a ridiculous spoiled rich brat clashed with a diligent even if not very bright detective he saw now. “But if it’s not a robbery, then what is the motive?”

“Beats me. We contacted the police department in her home city, and apparently, there are no known heirs. No life insurance, little money in the banks, a small house and a puppet theater that’s barely solvent. Nobody wants to inherit a puppet theater.”

Zuko nodded. “No foul play?”

“Apart from being smothered to death? No. We are certain.”

“Personal motives?”

“Nothing that we could find so far. Her home town is not very forthcoming about her connections though, maybe you could dig there. Here, she lead a quiet life just like the rest of elderly ladies that flock to the town at this time.”

“Why this time?”

“Out of tourist season, very cheap.”

“Well. I guess, I need to think about all it. I am sure we missed something.”

“Sure. Go, have lunch, clear your head. I hope we’ll solve it together.”

When Zuko walked out of the building, he didn’t go to any of the lunch places nearby. In fifteen minutes he stood in front of “The Black Panda Goat”. 

He opened the door and entered. The frazzled girl was gone, and in her place a smiling youth stood behind a register. “What tea would you like, sir?” he said in bright and cheerful voice that sounded all wrong in the circumstances. 

“Eh, jasmine, please.” Zuko didn’t expect to feel such crushing disappointment. “Is Mai here?”

“Mai? Sure.” He turned back and screamed, “Maaaaai! There is some guy asking about you!!!!” then he finished taking Zuko’s payment and went to make him tea. Zuko stood, looking at his feet, afraid to seem too eager. He wasn’t eager. He just wanted to talk to an old… friend of his sister. His friend. 

“Here is you tea, sir.” The youth passed him a cup and disappeared. Zuko took the cup and went to sit by the window. He really should have had lunch instead. It was stupid. 

Steps behind him, and Mai sat on the opposite side of his table without saying anything. They watched each other in silence for a while, until it got plainly ridiculous. 

Zuko coughed. “Hi, Mai. So, you are working here every afternoon.”

“Nope, not every afternoon.”

“Do you want to talk? I mean, not here. I mean, I’d love to talk. I didn’t know you live here. Or work here. Or anything. How are you?”

“I am ok, thank you.” 

“I am here for several days, for work. Overseeing a murder case.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Well...” the conversation came to a grinding halt. 

Mai got up. “Let’s go for a walk, and you can tell me about it if you want.”

“I want to, but can you leave now??”

She turned to the youth behind the counter. “Shoji, cover me for a couple of hours, please.”

“Sure, Mai.”

“You won’t get in trouble for leaving, will you?”

“No, why? As you can see we are not exactly bursting with customers right now, and I’ll let Shoji leave earlier.”

They walked out, and Zuko started talking about his work. Mai listened. 

“You came here to tell me about it?” 

“I don’t know, I felt like we should talk, but the only thing I can think right now is the case I am working on.” And after a second, added, “Maybe I should have had a lunch.” 

“Ok, let’s go have lunch.” Mai lead him somewhere and soon enough they were seated in a tiny hot pot place where delicious smells assailed him and reminded that he hadn’t had anything but tea since yesterday. 

For a while he couldn’t talk, too busy with food, while Mai watched him with a slightly sarcastic expression. She had her own plate full, and her appetite didn’t seem to get worse from their high school days.

“Thanks for bringing me here, it’s a nice place.”

“Sure. Shoji’s relatives are owners.”

Maybe it was a haze of finally being full, but a crazy idea came to Zuko. The thing was, he could always trust Mai. And maybe, she would be able to notice what they all missed. Fresh pare of eyes and all that.

He told her what he knew about Hama and her murder. 

Mai sat in silence, scratching her chin. “What did they find in her room?”

Zuko opened the images on his communicator tablet and showed then.

Mai poked at them without expression. “So she was Water Tribe, was she?”

“No, why?”

“Didn’t she look Water Tribe? Anyway, here is a comb that is definitely South Water Tribe design, and the pendant, too. Look rather old. Of course, she might be just a fan of the tribal jewelry.”

“She was born in the Fire Nation, as far as I know. I have to check. Anything else?”

“Where did she go during the day? Do you know?”

Zuko checked his notes. “Beach, promenade, tea houses, restaurants, senior center, occasional antique shops…”

“Senior center.”

“What about it?” 

“Do you know what people do at the senior center?”

“Eeeh… talk?”

“Everything. Swimming pools, hot tubs, exercises, guided mediation, bending shows, karaoke nights…”

“How do you know all this?”

“I rent my apartment from an elderly aunt, several times removed. I know all about fashionable seniors’ lifestyle here. The point is, with all this wealth of activities, do you know what the senior center has available?” 

“What?” Zuko’s head was spinning trying to imagine himself a fashionable elderly aunt.

“Lockers. Lockers in the ladies’ changing rooms that you haven’t checked yet.”

“We haven’t?”

“Have you?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Zuko scrolled through his notes on reports, pictures of Hama’s known possessions and other material on hand. “Nope. Well, thanks, I’ll tell the police to find it.”

“If they apply for court order, then watch all the security footage to determine whether Hama did leave something here and where, how much time will it take?”

“Some time.”

Mai smiled demurely. Zuko felt danger close by. “What do you suggest?”

“Let’s sneak in and have a look. And then you go through getting an order and such.”

“We are going to be in so much trouble for this. Why do you want to do it?”

“Just a chance to do something exciting.” She shrugged. 

“I have no idea why I am agreeing to this.”

“Because you are desperate.”

“Well, yeah.”

“You know, maybe you will get your court order in time. That way we could still sneak in and it wouldn’t be wrong”. Now, that was a ridiculously thrilling idea. He wanted to do it with Mai, with the fire that surprised him.

“And how are you going to do it? As neither of us is a senior.”

“No, but I have one on hand. I can always come up with a reason to be there.” 

“Ok. I’ll set out to get an order to search, and tomorrow - are you free tomorrow morning?” 

“Yes, I’ll meet you by your hotel.”

“Ok.” Zuko gave her the hotel’s address and his phone number.

“So, how’s everything?” 

“Fine. You?”

“Fine, as well.” And they were back to not being able to talk to each other. 

In his room later that night he lay down and rubbed his eyes. It was a long strange day. The work had made it long, which by itself was normal enough. But meeting Mai, talking to her, that was all unexpected in so many ways…

Why did he even went back to ask for her? Why did he moved away from the polite talk about nothing to something that really bothered him? Why did she offer to help? Why did he agree? 

He didn’t think of Mai for years. He tried really hard and mostly succeeded. But now memories of them together came rushing in, good and bad both. Spirits, they were so young and stupid! At least now… Now he wasn’t that young. And hopefully, not that stupid. And he was perfectly happy with being on polite and friendly terms with Mai. He really did need that help. They missed the possibility that Hama had another storage space in a gym locker. 

A loud melody from the desk made him jump. It was Sokka calling to remind of their virtual gaming session. 

Zuko sat up, put his virtual reality gear on, and logged into the Avatar Hero Team. 

Soon enough he saw his friends’ characters waving at him. Aang, Katara, and Sokka looked like vague versions of themselves, and Toph appeared as a huge lumbering man. It gave an incongruous effect when she spoke, but she enjoyed unsettling people. 

“Hello, guys, I am so happy to see you!”

“And so are we!”

“Is Suki not playing today?”

“She is here, but we are running a dungeon today, and Team Avatar is only five person for a dungeon.”

“What about the baby?” Zuko asked Katara and Aang, but Sokka answered first.

“What do you mean?! Bumi is not allowed to play yet, he’ll pull all the aggro and we’ll be wiped in a second! Not until he is at least one year old!!”

Katara laughed. “Don’t listen to him. Bumi is sleeping.” 

“How are you today? Is the town as horrible as yesterday?” Aang asked him.

“Slightly less. The police department are morons, but well-meaning ones.”

“Did you meet anyone new and interesting?”

“Ehh, no.”

“I can see you are lying!” Toph voice was stern, and Zuko, not for the first time thought that she would have made a great detective.

“Toph, how can you possibly see it?”

“I might be blind, but I have the best cybergear known to humankind that can analyze the slightest variations in voice patterns, and also I know you, Zuko. You are the worst liar ever.”

“well… I didn’t meet anyone new, I guess. But I’ve met Mai...” 

“Oh, Yes! I didn’t realize you were going to her town! That’s awesome!” Sokka’s game character started talking with Suki’s voice.

“Suki, are you there? You knew Mai lives in this town?”

“Sure! We had our yearly reunion recently, it was great, we all laughed for three days and had marvelous time. How’s she doing?”

“Fine, I guess. We didn’t really talk much.”

“What did you talk about?

“Erm… We decided to break in the old ladies’ changing room together.”

“Damn. I wish I was there.” That was Sokka again. Though both he and Suki could say that.

“Ok, let’s go, while Bumi is asleep!” Katara reminded them of their goal and they were off to kill monsters and get treasures.

It was a pretty good run, at the end.

“How did it happen again that I did the most damage, but Katara is the most valuable player?” Toph grumbled.

“She did only slightly less damage and most of the healing. She probably could solo the dungeon and not notice it.” Sokka said with admiration tinted with annoyance. “My sister is a mean genius.”

“If only people at my residency shared your opinion, and let me try waterbending healing officially…”

“Oh, no, don’t start it again!”

“Why not? It’s the ancient tradition of our people, and it works!” Zuko heard anger rising in Katara’s voice. It was a sensitive topic with her, and he had no idea why Sokka kept poking at it. Then he heard baby noises.

“I’ll check on him now,” Aang’s voice. 

“I should be going soon, anyway. It was nice to have that much time to play with all of you.” Katara said. “Tell us everything in the next time. Why, by the way, did you and Mai break up?”

Zuko suddenly realized he didn’t have an answer. “There were reasons… that were important at the time.”

Toph laughed. “Ask Mai, I am sure she’ll be happy to tell you all about them.”

She probably would, too, Zuko thought.

“Ok, guys, Suki needs her beauty sleep, too, logging off for now! Ouch! Ok, ok, she doesn’t need it, I need my beauty seep!” Sokka logged, arguing with Suki about something.

“Well, I am planning to go and kick some asses by myself now, bye!” Toph said and disappeared.

“Everything is going to work out, I am sure about!” was the last he heard from Aang before the game was silent and empty. 

Will everything work our though? It was easy for Aang to be so optimistic about most things in life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zuko and friends are playing MMORG that I modeled after World of Warcraft, since I know it the best. And the pain of having group of six friends who cannot be in a group together. Suki! I feel your your pain!!!! 
> 
> so, all the Gaang except for Zuko is in the Republic city. Katara has her medical residency there, and the rest - I don't know yet. Maybe I'll figure it later for other stories.
> 
> There is a time difference between Fire Nation and Republic city, but I've decided that it allows the friends to play together. Prove me wrong.


	3. A Little Bit of Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How was Hama's storage was found? And was found in it? And did Mai and Zuko ever talked again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This day's prompt is "Modern"
> 
> What's more modern than extensive police paperwork? 
> 
> Also, Mai has a cool coat. Just imagine the coolest longest black fashionable coat, totally out of place in a small town, and that's exactly what she has.

The morning was gray and unwelcoming. Mai stood waiting by the hotel where Zuko lived and pondered her life choices. Mostly the choice to offer to wait for him there. She huddled in her long black coat that seemed so cool and stylish when she saw it, but it was neither warm nor comfortable to wear now. The whole meeting the day before was strange and unexplainable. 

Zuko appeared, however just in time before Mai started to get annoyed. He looked… if Mai was totally honest with herself, he looked very handsome. Strands of his long hair that got out of his ostrich-horse tail falling on his face made her want to touch them and tuck back into their place. Good thing she can control herself so well.

He noticed Mai and stood still, as if disbelieving. She couldn’t blame him. She disbelieved herself. Better keep it all strictly business-like. Then he grinned like a little boy. Damn. And after short and awkward greetings he said, still grinning, “Can you believe it? We don’t have to break in, I managed to get all paperwork in order. They really want to solve it, after all!”

Mai felt slight disappointment. She was looking forward to a little bit of fun. “Can we still pretend we are breaking in though? You don’t have to show it immediately, tight?”

Zuko stared at her. 

“Fine. And what are you going to do when you show them you paperwork? Watch hours of security footage trying to figure out where Hama could hide it?”

“You have a better idea?”

“Of course I have” She tried to make every word ooze as much sarcasm as possible. She wanted to help this idiot! As always it went unappreciated. 

“Sure, what do you suggest?”

“I go in first and figure out which lockers to look at, using my advanced knowledge of local elderly and life in general. Then you look at them.”

“That’s actually a good plan”

“Thank you, Zuko, for your confidence.” She turned and walked to the senior center in silence. Zuko followed her. 

At the center she greeted receptionist Tia and gave her aunt’s membership card. Zuko stayed behind, giving her ten minutes alone before barging in with the order.

“Good morning, Mai! Is everything ok with your aunt Li Min?”

“Yes, thank you Tia. She believes she forgot her swimsuit and goggles here. I have no idea why she wants them now, but you know how it is.”

“No worries. Do you know where to check?”

“Of course, I have the keys from her locker.”

“Go ahead!”

Mai went to the dressing room. There were a couple of women changing. Mai didn’t know them, so they were not local. Local ladies had all their favorite lockers. Tourists used whatever locker was free and the ones they could remember. She looked at he rows of closed doors. Each had a number and a picture – people could forget one or the other, but it was harder to forget both. Flowers, fires, animals, plants, sun, moon, stars, weird symbols – everything that could be memorable. She thought back at the picture of that comb. She was sure that it was Water Tribe one. What could be meaningful to a Water Tribe person? A fish? There were a couple of different fishes. Water? Maybe. Moon. That’s the thing. There was also a pendant with moon among the pictures. So if Mai was right, they had to check the moon locker. And she really wanted to be right. 

She opened her aunt’s locker, predictably didn’t find anything and then Zuko came in, followed by two women. Women nodded to Mai, Mai nodded to them, but Zuko made unnecessary introductions.

“Mai!” He sounded as if he was happily surprised to see her there. “This is Detective Ming and the Center Manager Ko, and this is Mai who thought that the victim could have had some possessions here.”

“I suggest you check the moon locker.”

“Hmm, it would be consistent with the Water Tribe heritage of the victim. Moon is sacred to those people.” Detective Ming said. 

Mai privately rolled her eyes. Why was she the one who pointed it out first then? The Manager quietly asked the patron not to freak out, and opened the locker. There was a large binder inside with papers sticking out. 

Detective Ming sat to write a protocol for taking the binder, while Zuko leafed through it. 

“Yes, it ours, well, Hama’s. And it looks really strange.” he said.

“You’ll have time to read it at the office, let’s go. You are frightening the old ladies,” Detective Ming made everyone sign her papers.

Present old ladies, despite being in various states of undress, were not particularly frightened by Zuko, Mai noticed. But there was no point of staying here, too. 

Was that all? Just a little bit of fun before lunch? There was no reason for her involvement, and she wasn’t particularly interested in murder investigation, but she didn’t want her adventure to be over yet.

“Mai, do you want to come with us?” Zuko asked suddenly.

“Are you going to arrest me, officer?” She turned on the sultry tones in her voice just to mess up with him a little. 

Zuko predictably snorted. “Well, we needed an extra pair of eyes, and yours were most helpful. Maybe you’ll see something else we are missing.”

“We can always come with a reason to keep you at the police station, don’t worry.” Detective Ming had her own brand of dry humor. 

They left the senior center and walked to the police department building. Detective Ming went ahead with all the papers and Zuko with Mai fell back trying to find a way to talk.

“Is detective Ming the one who handles the case?”

“She and detective Chan together.”

Mai nodded.

“Did you know that it is the same Chan?”

“It’s a really small town, Zuko. Of course I know Chan.”

“Do you ever talk about…?”

“No, what for? We have other things to talk about, much more interesting.” 

“Oh.”

Mai wanted to talk about other things to Zuko, too, but couldn’t find a safe topic.

“When do you need to go to work?” He asked. Safe, but not interesting.

“Later in the day. And weekend I am off, they had some school kids working weekends at the tea house.”

“That’s nice.”

Mai didn’t say anything. Zuko was still bad at small talk, and she wasn’t that good either. They probably only could talk about murders. 

“Mai, why did we break up?”

What, really? Mai thought, immediately irritated. “Really, Zuko? That’s what you want to talk about, eight years too late?”

“Not particularly, but I couldn’t remember, and… You are right, we need to drop it. It doesn’t matter now.”

It didn’t matter, but the old pain flared. “We were together, but we couldn’t ever talk about things that really were important to us. Or about anything else. Not much changed, here, didn’t it? You were going to Ba Sing Se, and I couldn’t. And not being together and not talking – what future we had?”

“You could have gone with me. Or asked me to stay.”

“No, you had to get out of the Fire Nation for a while. It was the best for you. We were all marinating in that weird world of our families. And no, I couldn’t go to Ba Sing Se. I had no money any more, and couldn’t leave Tom Tom alone with my mother for several years.” She saw he starting saying something. “What is the point of arguing about it now? It’s all done. We’ve moved on.”

“I guess.” 

Why he was so… ridiculous? “You know, I should go. There is no good reason for me to be here now. You have your work, and I’ll be doing… what? It was nice to be able to help you, and that’s it.”

“No, please. I mean, if you want to go… but it’s just better if you stayed. What if you notice something we missed? You can leave any time you get bored, or we could go later and have lunch. I rely on your knowledge of lunch places here.”

Truth was, there was nothing really to do for her today. And well, she didn’t want to leave yet. Self-inflicted pain was coming back into fashion, they said.

At the police station she greeted the folk she knew and was warmly greeted in return, To Zuko’s inquiring glance she murmured “tiny town” and went on chatting with colonel Shinu about his son. Someone made tea for them, and joked how Mai was unaccustomed to be given tea instead of making it for others. It was a bad joke, and not a very good tea, but the intentions were good, so she smiled and thanked, and drank her tea.

“You know everyone here, don’t you?” Zuko had his own cup of tea that he was sipping from carefully.

“No, not everyone, but most people. Some by face only. A number of them are also my distant relatives. My family owned land here for centuries, intermarried with other local families, and so on.”

“You seemed friendly with the Colonel.”

Mai shrugged. “I work as a substitute teacher in an elementary school here. A couple of months ago a teacher broke a leg, and I was dealing with eight year olds for a month. That included Colonel’s son.”

“It sounded like he was very impressed by you.”

“It is easy to impress a bunch of eight year olds when you can hit a flying spiderfly.”

Zuko laughed awkwardly and set about doing his own work. To be fair, Mai was impressed watching him working. Somehow he looked at same time like an overeager puppy and cool professional who knew what he was doing and could make everyone around him to focus on work. The chaotic movement of people around them started to make sense. Zuko talked to Colonel Shinu, then to an officer whose name Mai didn’t remember, then went to computer and wrote something, called Chan and Ming and argued with them for some time. She didn’t have anything to do, but she found that she rather enjoyed watching other people working. Especially Zuko. He looked very, very fine when working. She could just appreciate it, from aesthetic perspective, right? Right.

Finally, he remembered that she was there. “Sorry, Mai. I asked you to come, and there was nothing for you to do yet.”

“Not a problem.”

“Yeah. We are trying to get the police department in Hama’s town to move faster. We need people she knew, money matters, all of this. We only got the confirmation that her parents were from Southern Water Tribe who moved to Fire Nation for work, had a baby, then died in an accident. And since she had no one else here, she was raised in an orphanage.”

“Strange that you only got it now.”

“Well, they are not used to dealing with murders here.”

“That’s true. I don’t remember any in past years.”

“We actually had a murder a year ago, but it was a pretty obvious one. People got drunk and angry, one ended up dead.” Chan mentioned, stopping by.

“How do you find police work, Mai? Thinking about joining in?” Chan joked.

“Doesn’t look much like in movers.”

“No. It’s mostly paperwork, more paperwork, and then re-doing all the paperwork.”

“So, do you want to read the papers?” Zuko asked.

“Sure.”

They went to an empty table and studied the contents of Hama’s binder. 

“Was she collecting materials for a book? Looks like copies of documents, newsprint clippings, old photos...”

“That’s what we need to find out. Was she and could someone kill her because of it? Shall we?”

Mai sat down and picked the first paper. “Report on situation in Fire Lily Orphanage. Is it the one was grew up in?”

“I think so.”

After skimming through first pages Mai rubbed her eyes. “That’s horrible. Is it all still there? Poor little kids...”  
“It is pretty old. Look, the date of the report is fifty years ago. So whatever’s described here, it happened a long time ago. I have to check what is happening there now, of course.”

“But if it how it was when she was there, her childhood must have been hell.”

“Yeah… puts our problems in perspective, doesn’t it?”

“Just because someone suffered more, it doesn’t mean your pain wasn’t real.” Or hers. She knew she grew up a spoiled rich girl, and she wouldn’t want to exchange places with poor abused orphans, but her pain was her pain.

They spent another couple of hours pouring over meticulously documented abuse of orphans several decades ago. Someone brought them lunch, and they ate it without noticing.

Then Mai looked at the time, shook her head and said. “I am done for today. I don’t think she was killed over that – it was all in the open, with the reports, and the newspapers, right? And I cannot read more abuses, I need to work tonight.”

“Fair enough. It was a great help that you were here.”

“Was it really?” Mai sighed. 

She said her goodbyes and left. Zuko followed her, probably without thinking. 

They got out of the door and stood in silence for some time. Mai took a cigarette out of her pocket and started to look for matches in the purse. 

“You’re smoking?” Zuko, surprised, still obligingly offered a palm with the small flame in it. 

Mai got the matches and lit her cigarette the usual way. Zuko shrugged and lit his own cigarette. 

“And so do you.”

They smoke in silence for a while. 

“Just… tried to look cool at some point, I guess.”

Mai snorted rather loudly at this, and he smiled, looking far away. “I mean, my firebending is only good for tiny fires, and it gave me something to show off. Then I just got used to it. What about you?”

Mai shrugged. “It was yet another way to annoy my parents. And then I didn’t find a good reason to stop.”

“It’s bad for you health?” Zuko offered without much thought.

Mai took a long look at him. “I’ll stop if you stop.” She said with a challenge. 

“Sure.” Zuko immediately took the light out, threw the cigarette in the garbage bin and smirked. “So?”

Mai slowly inhaled then sighed out, letting out the smoke fly away in the night air. Then threw away the dead cigarette.

“It’s a deal.” She said offering her hand for a handshake. 

He shook the proffered hand and lingered, as if he had other plans for her hand. But dropped it and turned away. “Well. We’ll have to find something else to appear cool.”

It was a pathetic attempt at a joke, and Mai decided to rescue him. “Don’t bother. You are cool enough as is.” Then, to keep the appearance, she strode away without looking back feeling elegant in her impossible coat. 

Out of his sight her steps slowed down. What was the meaning of this strange exchange between them? Were they talking, like normal people? Were they flirting? Is it just them being old friends? Is he just an old friend? Well, no. Is she just an old friend to him, then? He lived a life after they broke up. Just as he planned. She… she lived, of course. There were little joys and little victories, and everyday work, and friends, and Tom-Tom, but now it all seemed to be just waiting for her real life to begin. Mai hated the implications of this line of thought. Hers life was real. Maybe not exciting, but her own. She definitely didn’t need Zuko or anyone else to be herself. Then why did feel like her life had finally started right now?! She habitually rummaged her pocket for cigarettes, then remembered their agreement and growled in frustration. What was she supposed to do now, when the situation called for a cigarette? Of course, she could disregard the agreement, but it was a damn good moment between them, and she didn’t want to waste it. Mai stopped, inhaled the cold wind deeply and slowly exhaled. Then took out her half-empty pack, looked around for a bin, found one fifty meters away and threw the cigarettes in it. They flew a flawless trajectory and disappeared in the garbage. Well, she could always distract herself with throwing things, there was that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I was thinking the dialogue was too stilted, but then I looked at Mai and Zuko: no, that's exactly how they would be talking to each other right now. But I am curious about your opinion.
> 
> Note on names: I tried to re-use names and characters from the show as much as possible. That's part of the fun of creating AU: set characters in totally new circumstances. On Ji and Shoji mentioned before were seen in "The Headband", Colonel Shinu came from "The Blue Spirit", and Detective Ming used to be a kind prison guard. Detective Chan was an annoying youth from the Beach, of course. Chan has some unpleasant history with Azula that everyone refuses to talk about.
> 
> I also keep justice system here as vague as possible. It's a bit of a mash-up of several different countries in our world, because I didn't want to come up with detailed system that would fit the Avatar world.


	4. The Weekend  with Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone got to enjoy some free time! It's weekend in the world of the story. Zuko goes to a picnic, plays some games and a has drinks in a bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 4 of Maiko AU week. I've got nothing meaningful to add here.
> 
> Does Avatar world even have weeks, let alone weekends? I think two-days weekend is nice to have in every world.

He stopped before an unprepossessing house and took a deep breath. He needed to talk to Mai, but when he messaged her, she said she couldn’t go out at the moment and asked to come by her place. Well. Here he was. At the place where Mai lived. It was an old two-storey house. Not romantically decrepit, just old and in need of a new paint and some repairs. Behind the house he could see an overgrown garden with blooming plum trees and some other trees he couldn’t immediately identify. Just a regular old house. Zuko exhaled again and knocked on the door.

An old lady opened after some time and looked him over rather sternly.

“Good morning, madam, can I see Mai?”

She nodded, “She is in the backyard. You can go, but no funny business!” Then she pointed the way and left.

Zuko found his way to the backyard, and then stopped in his tracks. There, under a large tree, still leafless in the season, there was set a picnic. On a dark red picnic blanket there were a tea set, a vase with fruit, and a vase with cookies and tiny fruit tarts. Mai was sitting on the blanket, elegant and cool wrapped up in some kind of a warm fuzzy coverlet. Beside her, a boy of about ten was lying with a book in his hands, and two little identical girls were sitting and stuffing themselves happily with fruit tarts. 

Zuko felt a cold grip of terror at the scene. But the girls were too little, he thought. There haven’t seen each other for eight years, and the girls were… five? Four? He unfroze. And met with Mai’s sarcastic smile, realizing she could probably see all his thoughts right now. 

“Girls, allow me to introduce Zuko, my old friend, currently here on very important business making Fire Nation a better place. He is ok.”

The girls nodded solemnly.

“Zuko, meet Lo and Li, daughters of my friend On Ji. I am babysitting them on weekends usually. And you remember my brother Tom Tom of course.”

Ok, that explained things. More or less. “Hello, Lo and Li, hello, Tom Tom.” 

The boy mumbled something that could be construed as greeting without tearing himself away from the book. 

“Do you have time to have tea with us?” Mai asked him.

“Sure.” He sat gingerly on the edge of the blanket. 

“Tom Tom, please bring more fruit tarts from the kitchen. And I think, more water for the tea.”

Tom Tom wordlessly got up and stumbled towards the house.

“So, On Ji has two kids, wow. She looked younger than you.” 

“She is a couple of years younger. Got married immediately after school graduation to a love of her life. Two kids happened. Last year she divorced him and moved here to start a new life, so to say.”  
The unsaid hang up in the air. Was it the future they happily avoided? “I see. It was just so unexpected…”

She shrugged. “On Ji doesn’t have a family here. It was one of the reasons why she moved in this town, of all the places – her family was unhappy with the divorce to the extreme, as I understand. So I help a bit, it’s easy enough for me, since I usually take Tom Tom for the weekends.”

“Where does he live?”

“My mother has a house nearby. We have real estate left over from the time of being rich. Mother lives in a small house, and rents out another house for the tourists during the season.” 

“And you?”

“I couldn't be paid to live with my mother. I rent the upper floor from Aunt Min, who is my great aunt, several times removed, but still, a family member. And I got a family rate.”

“What does it mean?”

“It’s much cheaper, but I have to behave myself and take care of the garden.”

Tom Tom returned with fruit tarts in a large bowl. He dropped the bowl on the blanket and grabbed a handful of tarts to eat before returning to his book.

“What is the book about?” Zuko asked the boy. 

“It’s legends of the first avatars. Pretty wild stuff. I am not sure I can believe it. Can you believe that people all used to live on giant lion turtles? They had to be huge! And where did they disappear? They are not around, and neither are their skeletons. The bones that large someone should have found them by now.”

“May be they are deep inside the earth? Or in the in spirit world?”

Tom Tom snorted in a remarkably Mai-like way and moved back to his book and tarts. 

Zuko was still holding his teacup, and finally remembered to drink tea. “Oh, It’s very good.”

“Thanks. I work in a tea shop, you know.”

“Doesn’t mean anything. I used to help in my uncle’s tea shop in Ba Sing Se, and well… my tea is worse. Uncle gave up on me being a tea master, I think.”

They drank tea in silence, he and Mai. The little girls also seemed busy with cakes and tea. The domesticity of it all hit him like an attack of a walrus monkey. It was… nice and comfortable to sit here with Mai and various children and drink tea, as if there were no eight years when they didn’t talk at all.

“So, which one of you is Lo and which is Li?” He asked first thing that came to his mind. 

“I am Lo and she is Li,” they answered in unison and felt down giggling. 

“Lo has a birthmark on her left ear, and Li has three birthmarks on her right cheek.” Mai noted.

“Is that how you tell them apart?”

“I know them well to tell apart now, but it’s helpful in the beginning.”

“You are good with kids.”

“And you say it in such a surprised tone.” 

“Well, it’s not what I expected to see.” 

“I am a teacher. It’s not what I dreamed about, but it’s not bad, and I actually like it, in most part.”

“A teacher and a tea master. Lo, Li, what do you think of Mai?”

“She is nice.” One of them said seriously, Zuko still had no idea which one.

“I am going to marry her when I grow up,” said the second one.

There was nothing he could answer to that, so he ate another fruit tart. It was delicious. 

Mai got up and said “It’s knife throwing time now” Lo and Li got up and ran after her. Tom Tom got up and ran to the fence from where he got a large wooden shield. 

“Come over here,” he said to Zuko while trying to cover the picnic area with the shield. “You heard, knife-throwing time!”

“I remember Mai’s aim being very good years ago, I doubt you have to worry she’ll miss.”

“Her aim is perfect; it’s Lo and Li I am worried about, they’ve just started.”

“Oh.” Zuko dived behind the shield. “How’s your aim then?”

“Pretty good, if I say so. You spend your childhood with Mai you pick up stuff.”

Zuko chuckled. “I actually did spend a large part of my childhood around Mai. But my knife throwing skills were hardly above average.”

Tom Tom did an eye-roll, another perfectly Mai’s expression and said politely “I am sure you had other awesome skills.”

Zuko considered telling Tom Tom that he remembered him toddling naked in a park and eating a moth slug, but decided that he didn’t really want to antagonize Mai’s brother. 

Instead he said, nodding to the book. “still, lion turtles or not, I guess, it was cool when earthbending could make walls and firebending could make waves of fire or even lightning….”

“Maybe. But being a nonbender sucked in those times. I like it now.”

“Well, that is also true. But I am sure your sister’s knife throwing would be useful in those times, too.”

Tom Tom snorted.

Time passed.

Mai and girls returned, having finished their practice. 

“I have a sister too, you know. I mean, beside Azula. From mom’s second marriage. Kiyi is thirteen now, and she is very nice. Wants to be someone awesome, but haven't decided how exactly.”

“She has time. How’s Azula? Still planning to be a fire lord?”

It was a painful memory for both of them, he could see it in Mai’s eyes. 

“Eeh, she is better now. No, she accepted that she is not the fire lord. She does want to bring firebending back, mocks me for settling and thinking small. As long as she takes her medication regularly, she is...okayish. Mom’s trying to talk to her. Sometimes it seems... anyway. She didn’t say anything about you of Ty Lee for years.”

Mai got up. “You wanted to talk. Tom Tom, please play with Lo and Li for a bit, I need to talk to Zuko.”

He stood up beside her too quickly, almost lost his balance, stepped and flapped his hand and grabbed Mai’s arm to steady himself. And it felt like lightning. 

“I… oh, sorry” He hid his arms behind his back.

Mai led him to the other side of the small garden, under the blooming plum. 

He inhaled and started. “It’s not that you have to know it, but we’ve learned so much and still didn’t move anywhere in the case. Can I tell you what we found?

“Sure. Is it more of the same?”

“Yes. All about some atrocities or mistreatment or violence against… mostly Water Tribe people by Fire nation. Some are as old as a hundred years old, some are very fresh.”

“So, was that old lady a secret vigilante? Or just had a weird taste in reading materials?”

“You see, that’s what we don’t know at this point. A secret vigilante makes little sense, maybe she was working on writing a book, but given that she was murdered I have a theory that she was blackmailing people.”

“It would give a good reason to kill her, but…”

“But what?”

“You are unsure. Whom she could blackmailed and where is the dangerous documents that connect atrocities to the people who could pay her money? Come to think of it, where is the money? Did she start just now or was it her main source of income? Hundred year old documents hardly would be relevant to blackmailing, but could provide general insight.”

“Well, yes to all of this. There are no names of people who might be responsible and who can benefit from her death. I feel we are missing something. A lot of something.”

“I am sure you have already looking for the information. I doubt she would bring everything with her here on vacation. I take she didn’t meet anybody she knew here?”

“No, just casual encounters as far as the police could find out. Walked alone, ate alone…. We sent for the information on her personal life back in her own city… we are also searching the money trail. But with the weekend, it’s all going slow for a couple of days.” 

“What do you want from me then?” 

“Just wanted to bounce my thoughts to someone.” Zuko wasn’t sure why he felt it was necessary to talk to Mai. He didn’t think it through, but he wanted any reason to keep talking to Mai.

Mai looked at him with raised eyebrows. 

“Someone who is not Detective Chan. A friend.”

Terrible sounds interrupted them. Zuko turned around and saw a burning argument between the children. It was obvious that no matter what was it about and who was right, Tom Tom was losing his ground. He glanced at Mai. She calmly announced the clean up time, and made everyone take the remnants of the picnic back into the house. 

After the cleanup it was time to go. But it didn’t feel right. What else he was going to do today? So he suggested to go for a walk to show him the town, and then to have lunch together. Much to his surprise, kids happily agreed. So they walked towards the beach, he and Mai holding Lo and Li by hands, Tom Tom lurching or skipping by their side. They talked about Hama and her folders of atrocities. The secret journalist, the extortionist, or the vigilante – all these theories seemed equally implausible given the information they had, but they agreed on what new information was needed to confirm or dismiss the theories. 

Zuko got to his hotel room only in the evening. After the walk and the lunch he went to drop by the police department to see what news they had and ask for the new information he needed. And it kind of stretched till night. But it was good – he needed to focus on work, in order to distract himself from his thoughts. Well, all kinds of thoughts. The sooner he solves this case, the sooner he could move on, return home to his life. Mai invited him to come to beach tomorrow morning, as they seem to have something going on there on weekends. And Detective Chan mentioned he would be there, too. It would be good to drop by there, to find out if he has any new information. 

Zuko’s thoughts were circling back to Hama. A mystery woman with Water Tribe origins, a puppeteer and a collector of evils done to her people. He received some new information about her early life and it was equally disturbing, but explained some things. An idea occurred to him, and Zuko took out his gaming set, put on his VR helmet and made a call.

Soon enough, a girl in blue appeared in the game space. 

“Hi, Katara! I am so glad to be able to reach you. I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“If you did, I wouldn’t be here, I would be planning to kill you. No, Bumi decided that night is the time for fun and games, and I am here with him. I am glad you called. Aang is asleep, and I am planning to pass Bumi to him in the morning and catch up on that sleep. 

“How old is Bumi now? Is he not sleeping at night?”

“Four months. No, Zuko, he is not.”

“Oh, yes. Sorry I forgot. Been working on the case, just got to the hotel. Do you want to go kill someone together?”

“With you? Always!” The girl in blue jumped up and down, and Zuko&Katara entered a queue for ranked Avatar Arena matches.

“I actually wanted to talk to you.”

“Sure, what about?”

“The Water Tribe thing.”

“Which one?”

“Do you know about immigration from South pole to Fire Nation?”

“It exists. Less then to other places, but a hundred or more years ago, the Fire lord really made an effort to attract waterbenders to Fire Nation, mostly as healers. Then the use of bending in general kind of petered out, nonbending techniques were just as powerful, and nobody really needed waterbenders there. Some went back, some stayed, that’s it.”

“Hm”

“What is it? Tell me.”

“The lady whose murder I am investigate now, Hama. We’ve just found out she was.. well, her parents came from the South Water Tribe, had her, died, and she grew up in an orphanage. She had a puppet theater, but she also collected notes and articles of various abuses that suffered Water Tribe people from the Fire Nation.”

“Well, that’s pretty specific. Is it why she was killed?”

“Most likely, but that’s a lot of abuses, some are older than she was. Now we are looking at everything connected to her...”

“It’s not a very happy part of our common history, to be honest.”

“No, it’s not. I am sorry.” 

“You weren’t the one who did it.”

“But I didn’t know anything about it, either.”

“Well, one way would be to publish this stories she collected. Or were they published? In fact, I might just check it out myself. I’ve heard some unpleasant rumors on this issue actually.”

“Yeah, I talked to Mai, and we thought she might just wanted to publish a book or something. One theory of several, to be honest.”

“To Mai? As in your ex-girlfriend whom you didn’t see for years?”

“Yeah. We talk now. It feels strangely normal.”

“Why? You both changed in these years, makes sense that you start relationship in a different way. I don’t mean you are starting a romantic relationship, I have no idea, but if you two have good time talking maybe you could be friends. Or not, it is also fine. You don’t have to get stuck in your past.”

“Why do you think we’ve changed?”

“Well, I obviously have no idea about her, but I assume she did, just you’ve changed a lot in the past years.”

“I did?” He felt the same as always. 

A short laugh. “Of course! You were such a nasty self-absorbed ball of anger with bad sense of humor when I met you, and now you are a good friend I can always trust to tank for me in the dead of the night.”

“I wasn’t that bad!” Zuko screamed in sincere indignation, then remember that Katara had reasons to remember him like this. The first impression he made on his friends was really really bad. He sighed. “Ok, maybe I was. Sorry.” 

They played for a while, won another couple of matches, when Zuko heard a wail loud enough to get through. Katara said “Sorry, Zuko, Bumi needs me now. Keep us informed, bye!” and left the game. 

It the morning first thing Zuko remembered was his dream. He dreamed of him and Mai, when they were young and dating. Naked together in his bed. His head on her belly, her hands combing through his hair. Zuko wasn’t sure it was an actual memory or just his imagination. There were certainly quiet moments like this. When they felt alive, carefree, grown-up, and happy. They were neither grown-up, no carefree, and happy only for stolen moments in time when their families didn’t demand their attention.

The thoughts moved into a present day, and Mai as she was the day before, drinking tea with kids, smiling at him. Standing under a tree with pink petal swirling around. The dream and reality collapsed into one, and Zuko carefully got up and went to shower.

After the breakfast Zuko put on his track suit and headed for the beach. Chan was saying they are going to play ball, and Mai told him to come, and he had nothing else to do, anyway. 

The weather was cold and windy, but the beach was surprisingly busy with people.

Kids were running, elderly were walking on the promenade or sitting on benches watching the waves. Kites were flying, there was talk and laughter louder that the ocean waves.

“Hey, Zuko! Over here!” Chan was calling to him. Zuko came closer.

“Morning. Is it always like that here?”

“It’s the boring time of the year. Usually we have more tourists. Of course, it’s the weekend, so everyone wants to stretch a bit. Oh, here they are!” He pointed out to a group of people.

Zuko followed his hand and noticed Mai with Tom Tom and On Ji with her girls talking to another guy, vaguely familiar. He was flirting with them outrageously and, surprisingly, they seemed ok with it. In a flash, Zuko recognized the guy. 

“Hey, it’s Ruon-Jian!” He frowned, Ruon-Jian was another stupid rich guy from Chan’s company he hated back then. Of course, Chan improved, so maybe...

“Oh, yes.” Chan snorted cheerfully. “He is a terrible flirt, I keep telling him he’ll get in trouble eventually. But everyone here loves him.”

“What does he do?”

“He is a tour guide, a surfing coach, and kids animator, what have you. During the season he is busy like shit. I guess he needs to keep his flirting skills up, but man, it’s annoying.” 

Eventually, Ruon-Jian noticed them and waved cheerfully. 

On Ji stayed to play with her daughters while Ruon-Jian and Mai slowly moved towards Zuko. Ruon-Jian kept his outrageous flirting act running, and Mai, much to Zuko’s annoyance didn’t react with expected distaste. She looked to be perfectly at ease with Ruon-Jian, his lack of manners notwithstanding. When Ruon-Jian put his arm around her shoulders and whispered something leaning close, Zuko felt his anger raising and his fists itching to smash something. 

He calmed himself reminding that it’s absolutely none of his business, and Mai was free to date the whole town including fancy idiots if she wanted to. It didn’t bring him into better mood, of course, but at least he wouldn’t make a scene. 

“Good morning Chan, good morning, Zuko.”

“Hello, Zuko! I think we’ve met a long time ago.”

“Yes, a very long time ago.” 

“Time flies, man, we all were different people then… Less witty, less pretty… your looks certainly improved since I remember you. This hairstyle is way too old-fashioned, but you wear it well. Maybe you’ll bring it back into fashion. Do you think I can rock a top knot, love?” He turned to Chan and kissed him.

Chan rolled his eyes and returned the kiss. 

Zuko blinked. Then blinked again. “Are you guys, like, together?”

“Sure.”

“Since the school?”

“Spirits, no! That would be a disaster!” Chan laughed. “We were idiots who had no idea about anything.”

“A couple of years I dropped here for a bit of surfing, met Chan, and well, stayed. Working here is way more fun than whatever shit I used to do elsewhere.” Ruon-Jian slapped Zuko’s back. “Let’s go play! We can have a five people team for a while, before On Ji has to run away with her girls.”

They all walked back to On Ji. 

“Did you know that?” Zuko asked Mai. 

“Of course. We meet every weekend for a game or drinks.”

“Hmm.” Zuko felt stupid. Nobody had to tell him anything, of course, but still it felt strange to drop into lives of people he used to know and learn that their lives were going on. 

They ended up playing several ball games, first one lost, others won. If Zuko was perfectly objective, he had to admit they lost because he paid more attention to Mai than to the game they were playing. Mai was alive on the battlefield, her eyes had a dangerous gleam in them, her movements precise and powerful. Chan and Ruon-Jian were decent players, Ruon-Jian more fan of fancy throws and difficult kicks, and Chan relied on physical strength, but it was obviously they knew each other style and relied on that knowledge. On Ji was mostly enjoying screaming silly insults to the other team. 

They stopped before the lunch and agreed to meet at the bar later at night.

The Drunk Turtle Duck bar was no different that any such little bar in the Capital City. Except here everyone seemed to know everyone else – the small town was small, after all. The five of them were shown to a separate room, beer and snacks were brought in, and the conversation went along quite comfortably.

“Who did you leave the kids with, On Ji?”

“Shoji. He is not a big fan of noisy bars, and would rather sit at home. It’s perfect!”

“It’s nice seeing you with friends, Mai.”

“I know you have great friends yourself. I am happy you do.”

“yeah.”

After the drinks it felt most natural for him and Mai walk together. They rambled the streets and talked a little.

Their hands brushed occasionally and Zuko wondered whether to hold her hand. It would be almost an accident. And may be he preferred it to be an accident. But it didn’t happen. What happened instead was the conversation. That conversation that was simple and quiet and about nothing in particular and probably the best conversation between them that he could remember.

“Is this your normal weekend?”

“More or less. I try to take Tom Tom every week. I wouldn’t say we play at the beach or go to bar all the time with the guys, but often enough.” 

“What else do you do when you have free time?”

“Mmm… I read, watch movers, nothing much. And you?”

“I usually play online with my friends. It’s kind of our way to keep in touch now that everyone is busy with their lives. Do you play video games?”

“Occasionally. But I like to play alone.” 

“What about Ty Lee?”

“She is not much into games. When we see each other, we are busy talking usually.”

Knowing them, most of the talking would be done by Ty Lee. On the other hand, he only knew the old versions of Mai and Ty Lee, it seems. Maybe it was all different now. He really wanted to see it. Instead, he said.

“You know, when I go back home, maybe we could play together some time?”

“Maybe. My games are pretty boring though.”

“Mine too.”

He wasn’t sure what they were about. But playing with Mai should be interesting. 

“When are you going back?”

“Before the nest weekend, I think. I need to move this case along, but cannot stay here longer. I wonder what do I do if we have no real progress before I have to go back?”

“The real question that we should be asking,” Mai said “is why they send you here to investigate this case.”

“I know why. My boss Zhao hates me.”

“So he wouldn’t want you to succeed, right? He wants you here to fail? Does it mean he knows something and is sure that you will fail? Does it mean he actually wouldn’t want this case solved? Does it mean he is involved somehow in the death of Hama?”

The idea stopped Zuko in his tracks. Indeed he needed to think about it.

They came to Mai’s house. 

“Good night, Zuko.” Her hand rose, as if trying to touch his face then dropped without reaching halfway. Zuko wasn’t sure he was relieved or disappointed.

On his way back to hotel his thoughts circled back to the Hama’s case. Zhao, Water tribe, murder.. Her took out his phone and send a secure message to Sokka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruon-Jian in the first draft was meant to mess things up. But refused to do anything like that and fell in love with Chan instead. Now they are canon in my head.
> 
> everyone is playing the same ball game - kind of volleyball with kicks - that we saw in "The Beach" episode.


	5. An Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old friend comes to the town and makes everything better. Because it's Ty Lee, and Ty Lee makes everything better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The AU Maiko week for the day is "dystopia". I am drawing a blank here. 
> 
> But at least there are more crimes to solve?

Mai felt her last days were spent in a haze. Why exactly did she keep inviting Zuko? Why did he keep agreeing to her invitations? 

It was strange to reconcile a little boy she used to know, and the angry hothead she used to date, with this man. Whatever was tearing him apart back then let go, and left him calm, free and focused on something he always wanted to do – making Fire Nation better, one tiny step at the time. Somehow this new to Mai confidence was exhilarating to see. 

Even more exhilarating was how panicked and flustered he was when he saw her with the girls the day before.

Yesterday he looked ridiculous in his track suit and crazy old-fashioned top knot with flowing long hair. And ridiculously hot.

She was enough in touch with her feelings to know how badly she wanted to kiss him yesterday. And no, it wasn’t the drinks, because she wanted to kiss him after the game, when they were all laughing about, sweaty and exhausted, and Zuko carried Lo and Li to On Ji’s home because the girls got tired. 

Damn. That wouldn't lead to anything good, would it? They were dating, two kids clinging to each other because there was nobody else to cling to. And because she loved him since before... everything and had nothing to lose. And it only ended in heartbreak, anger and bitterness for both of them. It was better to just be polite and friendly. Not to ruin her perfectly normal life. 

But why did he have to grow up so damn hot?

She made herself breakfast and sat cradling her cup of coffee and staring into dark bitter abyss. If she were perfectly honest with herself she was never not in love with Zuko.

Her phone buzzed a reminder. Mai cursed under her breath. She almost forgot to pick up Ty Lee from the airpark. Sure, she had more than enough time, but without the reminder she wouldn’t go anywhere. Mai sighed. Screw love. 

Ty Lee’s circus was supposed to arrive for their tour shows in a week, but Ty Lee decided to come a bit earlier for a short vacation. They planned together to do nothing whatsoever, except talk and hang around. It was a really good plan, and Mai was looking forward to it, even took the days off from the tea house. She still was on call for the substitute teaching opportunities, but didn’t expect any to come up right now. But as much as she wanted to see Ty Lee, right now it was also suddenly… not the same. 

In any case, two hours later Ty Lee was relaxing in her apartment. She took a shower, put her things away and checked Mai’s bookshelves. 

“Have you read anything interesting lately? Or watched and want to recommend me?” 

“Hm? Not sure. I watched “The Twelve lives of Kyoshi”, but you probably watched it yourself. As for reading, I couldn’t find anything that would be right for the mood, so I was rereading old stuff, “The Pirate and the Dragon”, “Ten Dead Turtle Ducks”, “Honor and Prejudice”, “Three Girls on Sky Bison To Say Nothing of a Cat”, some poetry...

“I love the “The Pirate and the Dragon” mover even more than the book! “Honor and Prejudice” is always a good choice.”

“I was much more in the mood for gaming these past days. Kicking butts and killing monsters helps to restore my equilibrium.”

“Well, then you need to kill monsters more often, because I can see no equilibrium, and your aura keeps changing colors. What is happening, Mai?”

Mai shrugged. “Nothing much. Just life.”

Ty Lee squinted at her. “Is there a new boy?”

“No” (well, Zuko is most definitely doesn’t fit “a new boy” definition)

“A new girl?” 

“No.”

“Ok, tell me more while we have lunch.”

Mai had a table reserved in a place with the best selection of deserts in the town. Lunch is not really about deserts, but who cares. They are grownups who could responsibly eat deserts for lunch if they want to. And they wanted to.

“Are you happy with the circus?” She asked Ty Lee when they both were seated in a comfortable booth near a window.

“Living my dream. Without joking. I love the people, the public, the sparkle, the danger and thrill, being me, alone above on the wire...”

“But?” Mai had definitely heard a “but” after all these ecstatic words.

“But I wonder how long it will last. More and more often I feel – is that it? Do I really want to be a circus star all my life? And I am not sure.”

“I know what you mean. I stumbled into teaching not because it was a life-long dream, but because it was something I could do, and I discovered I liked it, but is it something I want to do with my life?”

“May be you should join me at the circus? We could have a double act.” Ty Lee giggled, but Mai almost seriously considered it.

“Yeah, I’ll be throwing knives at you dancing on high wire...”

“We could come up with something more elegant.”

“Or you can join me in teaching kids.”

“Nah, small kids frighten me. I might be better off with older ones. I can frighten them myself.”

The door opened with a loud bang, and Zuko appeared in the doorway rather dramatically. Good thing she knew he was coming. 

“Hi, Mai, hi Ty Lee!”

“Hello, Zuko,”ai said watching with amusement the reaction of her friends to each other.

“Hi, Zuko, what are you doing here?”

“I was looking for Mai?”

“All the way from Capital city?!”

“No, of course not. Wait. Ty lee, you were not here before.” Zuko actually shook his head. 

“Neither were you! I flew in this morning, a bit of vacation before the tour, and you?”

“On business.”

“Did you have lunch?” Mai asked, knowing what the answer was going to be.

“No, not yet.”

“Ok, I’ll order for you and you sit here and tell us what you’ve found.”

Ty Lee was looking at Mai with the greatest suspicion, and Mai decided to ignore Ty Lee’s pointed looks.

“So. A lot of new information came through this morning. Both on Hama and her collection, and the other thing you said yesterday.”

“Hm?” Ty Lee made interested noises.

“I was sent here about the murder of Hama. An old woman was killed several weeks ago, and the investigation didn’t move anywhere. Then, Mai found her secret locker, and we got Hama’s… collection of the crimes of Fire Nation officials against people of Water tribes. Mostly here, in the fire Nation. But some of them actually at the North or South poles. The latest of them is murder of a 16 year old girl, the daughter of the chief of the North Tribe that was made to look like suicide. The information I got from Sokka are some details about that murder, and the list of Fire Nation officials who worked at the embassy at the time of her death.”

“Well?”

“My boss Zhao was one of them.”

“Did you know that before?”

“I knew he used to serve overseas, in Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, but didn’t know the dates. And I had never thought to connect him to Hama’s list.”

“Now it seems he is connected.”

“There is still nothing to connect him to that girl.”

“Can I see it?” Ty Lee Leaned in to look at the documents in Zuko’s hands. “I think I saw this girl. I mean: white hair on a Water Tribe girl? Is pretty striking.”

“When could you see her? She died more than two years ago.”

“It was my first world tour with the circus, and I was so excited to see the whole world! I’ve made a lot of pictures everywhere! Here, I think I could pull them up here...”

“Do you keep them all on your phone?”

“No, they are all backed up at home, on my server, and I had some albums up in the CloudNet. Here.” Ty Lee was looking through the pictures. “Our first day there, the performance, the party at the club after… Yes! That’s what I mean: her hair looked so outrageously awesome that I took several pictures in case I ever want to try something, even with my skin tone it wouldn’t work.” 

Zuko stared at the pictures. “Yes, it does look like her. Wait. That’s definitely Zhao next to her there. Without sideburns, but still, it is definitely him.”

“So there is a proof.”

“Well. It is a proof that he was with Yue in the club that day. Which he had not business to do, of course, but not really a crime. And even that he can claim is fake picture.”

“So it’s all for nothing?” Mai felt the twinge of disappointment. 

“No, that’s a sign that we are digging in the right direction. The thing is, we need much more to actually prove anything. His connection to that case still might be non-existent.” 

“And even if we prove that Zhao killed that girl, we still don’t know if he killed Hama, right?”

“Exactly. All the connections we come up with so far are very tenuous.” Zuko looked hot with his furrowed eyebrow, concentrated on the task at hand. 

To distract herself from insane desire to trace his frown Mai concentrated on the case, too. “But if he killed Hama, he must have felt threatened by her findings.”

“We haven’t found anything here so far in her things, but people in her home town are working.”

“So, wait. Let me summarize it. That Zhao of yours kills Yue on North Pole. Then Hama learns about it, and Zhao kills her too. And then sends Zuko to investigate it. Am I right?” Ty Lee said it keeping her habitual cheerful facade, which made everything sound so much creepier. 

“That’s the best theory we have so far.”

“It’s crazy.” 

“Not if one doesn’t know Zuko well. He often looks like an idiot.” Mai felt obligated to say.

“Hey, I am right here!”

“I know. Tell me I am wrong.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and sighed. “No. I didn’t really have a successful case yet, to be honest.” 

“So why did he send you there, really? As I understand it wasn’t being solved all by itself, without your involvement?”

“I guess he is sure he’s safe, and he wanted to humiliate me some more.”

“Why does he hate you so much?” Ty Lee was genuinely surprised.

“No idea. It’s probably connected to my father somehow. I think Zhao managed to escape the mess unscathed, but still hates me for the mess.”

“Maybe he is secretly in love with you, and that’s why he hates you so much?” Ty Lee suggested with the most innocent expression she could muster. Sometimes Mai was envious of this ability of her friend. No one suspected Ty Lee in anything untoward ever, to Ty Lee’s benefit.

Zuko started coughing, as if he choked. Mai slammed his back. She knew it wasn’t the most useful thing to do if he was choking, but it still felt like the right thing to do.

Ty Lee was on a roll and continued. “Yea, if he secretly was in love with you, he shouldn’t have send you here. He should have talked to Mai, she is an expert.”

Mai could only answer this with the deadly glare, but Ty lee looked like she was having time of her life. Or well, at least someone was enjoying it.

“Was it ever really a secret?” She said as coolly as she could. Zuko had his face hidden in his palms and avoided the whole thing.

“Only from Zuko.” Ty Lee giggled. That sounded about right. She and Azula had figured it out before Mai herself did. At least she couldn’t be embarrassed by anything now as the result.

Their lunch arrived, and the three of them went on to enjoy the spicy noodles and tiny cakes. After finishing off his food Zuko got up. “Thanks for the lunch. I have to head back to work, with the new information we might make a breakthrough here. Ty Lee, please back up everything you need from the phone, it’s now the evidence and we might need to take it. Sorry about it.”

“No problem, I wanted a new one for some time.” 

“Are you staying here?”

“Yes, we have a lot of cakes and deserts to go through. But you have my number if something is urgent.” Mai answered.

“Ok. Well, see you…” He was struggling trying to find what to say, and she decided to help.

“Come to my place after work if you have nothing else. Ty Lee and I are planning to eat takeout, drink plum wine and say stupid things. You could join our fun.”

He nodded and left. Ty Lee was looking at her with a curious expression.

“What?” Mai decided not to wait.

“I can see that there is no new boy, because there is a really old one.”

“He isn’t old, just a year older than we are.”

“It’s not what I meant.”

Mai shrugged. “I am not confirming or denying anything. Just because for several days out paths crossed, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Well, maybe it doesn’t, but it was actually impressive.”

“What?” 

“You two, working together as a team. He is ready to explode, she hides her feelings in the deepest recesses of her soul, together they solve crime!”

“I think I saw some telemover series about it. But we are not like that anymore.”

“Are you thinking of getting back together?”

“I am not thinking anything. He has his own life, I have mine. We are ok.”

“Whatever. Just so you know. I am always there for you, but if I have to nurse you through another Zuko breakup, I’ll seriously kick your ass.”

“Noted.”

The deserts were as good as Mai expected them to be, but at some point they were finished, and the girls had to leave. 

They spent the day walking and talking, just as they planned, and it was good, but Mai caught herself wishing for the evening, when Zuko would come, and they would be awkward together, and Ty Lee will be mocking them and it would be… She wasn’t entirely sure what, but she was looking forward to it.

The evening started nicely. She and Ty Lee ordered a lot of food from her favorite restaurant, she opened a bottle of good plum wine she was saving for Ty Lee’s visit, they turned on the “Hilarious adventures of Avatar Kuruk and his friends” and settled comfortably to watch. Life wasn’t altogether bad. 

Soon enough Zuko showed up. Grinning rather sheepishly he produced a huge box with a huge fruit tart, covered in rose petals, no less. Mai felt herself blushing but didn’t say anything. Meanwhile he also took off his backpack and got another bottle of wine and three bouquets of fire lilies from it. One he handed to Ty Lee, one to Mai.

“And the third one?”

“It’s for your aunt.”

“Thanks! She’ll be delighted.” Mai left to deal with flowers leaving Ty Lee to deal with Zuko.

Apparently Ty Lee dealt with Zuko pretty well, since when Mai returned with thanks from her aunt, Ty Lee and Zuko were laughing on the sofa. She joined them and they all passed several very pleasant hours together. Zuko told them about the investigation – nothing new, except North Pole was incredibly happy to get a new lead and promised to share their findings. They talked about avatar Kuruk and his friends, and the state of modern bending, and best movers, and games. It was nice. They were friends since they were all little kids, but Mai couldn’t remember when they had such a good time together. Of course, there was one topic they all studiously avoided, the reason why they never had that good of a time together as kids, Zuko’s sister. But like an unwelcome shadow, each of them was happy to ignore it.

They went to walk Zuko to his hotel and shake some of the drunkenness off. The streets were quiet, the air was cold and the wind started to blow stronger and stronger. They huddled together and laughed. Until she caught Zuko’s deadly serious look and furious whisper “Down, fast”, as he pulled her and Ty Lee with him to the ground just as they heard several claps.

“What was that?”

“Sniper rifle. Luckily I noticed the red dot just above you, as the sniper was looking for his target.”

“Why would I be a sniper’s target?”

“Probably not you, but me.”

“Your case got hotter?”

“Yes. It would be safer for you to get home, and I’ll…”

Mai wasn’t having it. “What? We’ll go home and wait till some sniper kills you?” She suddenly was angry enough to kill him herself. Well, kick him, at least.

“we could hide together, but we probably won’t be able to find them in the morning.”

“We are not going back, I don’t want to endanger Aunt Li Min.”

“Let’s try to get real close to this sniper.” Ty Lee whispered.

“And?”

“I am a circus freak, I know a neat trick.” She grinned at them.

“Ok. Let’s go then. Just take the picture of the place on the wall where bullets hit, to find later.” Zuko said, and the three of them crawled away in search of the sniper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun thinking about old books that Mai read. 
> 
> "The Pirate and the Dragon”, is a story of a dashing Water Tribe man who had to become a pirate to avenge the wrongs done to his family and a young Fire Nation prince sent to hunt him...
> 
> “Ten Dead Turtle Ducks” is a famous murder mystery
> 
> “Honor and Prejudice” - you can guess, I am sure
> 
> “Three Girls on Sky Bison To Say Nothing of a Cat” - a world-renown jewel of humorous literature, travel notes about adventures of the three best friends, one is an Air Nomad, one is from Southern Water Tribe, and one is from Earth Kingdom. Also, there is a cat.


	6. A Very Busy Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things keep happening.

They sneaked along the dark streets, and Zuko tried his best not to lose sight of the place he saw the sniper. Good thing Mai knew were they were going, and he trusted they won’t get stuck in a dead end. 

The house from which the shots were fired turned out was close enough, and the sniper, Zuko was sure, was still there. He looked at the girls by his side. They didn’t look at him. They looked at where the sniper was hiding, they nodded to each other, then Ty Lee darted forward, quietly and carefully, while Mai stuffed hands in her pockets. 

Noise alerted the sniper, and he turned around becoming a visible silhouette on the roof. A knife flew from Mai, then another one, and there was a short loud wail followed by a thump.

Ty Lee appeared on the roof and waved to them enthusiastically.

“Call the police.” Mai nodded to him and ran to her friend.

Zuko obediently called the police unit and followed her. On the roof he found alive but motionless man lying down and Ty Lee sitting by him. 

“What did you do?”

“Chi-blocking. A forgotten art. Ancient martial tactics for nonbenders. An old circus lady taught me as a way to get away from ‘unwanted suitors’ - as she put it. But apparently it’s good for many occasions.” 

“Neat. So is he ok?”

“Yes. A temporary paralysis. If he moves before police is here, I’ll do it again.” 

“And what did you do?” He turned to Mai.

“Nothing. Got his rifle out, that’s all, so Ty Lee could come closer.”

“Do you always have knives with you?”

“No, only usually. Who knows what can happen?”

“Yeah, well… good things you do. Things like this don’t normally happen to me. But right now I really want my firebending be useful for more things that lighting the cigarettes. Maybe Azula is right, after all.”

“Nah, you are just shaken and disturbed right now.” Ty Lee was having none of it, being the hero of the night. “We are fine without bending.”

“You two are a pretty good team.”

“Well, life in college, you know. And of course, everything that went before, and even after…”

“I am not sure I know, to be honest. I mean, about you two. When we were kids there was always Azula.”

“Exactly. There was Azula, and us. It wasn’t really the four of us, or three of us. It was more one plus one plus one plus one. Well it’s hard to explain.”

The police vehicle arrived to take them and their attacker. On their way Zuko directed them to stop at the place where they were attacked, and looked around. Luckily, they found one shell almost immediately. He remembered at least three shot fired, but in the dark it was hard to work, so they would have to come back in the morning.

At the police station, the sniper refused to say anything without a lawyer, made a call, and was sent to a cell for the night. Ty Lee and Mai gave their statements and promised to come in the morning for more detailed questioning. It looked like they only agreed to leave when Zuko promised he would be sleeping right there, on a cot. He was both annoyed and pleased by their worry. And well, later, when he was laying down on an uncomfortable cot, he felt rather happy remembering Mai’s displeasure at his disregard for his life. The whole day – the lunch and the evening with her and Ty Lee messed up his head in a very pleasant way. He couldn’t put it in the words exactly, but it had a feeling of utter normalcy, and it left him wondering why didn’t he had it before. He only knew he would be missing it every day starting now. Among his friends he felt in a similar way, and he learned to take joy in their meetings that always felt too short no matter how long they really lasted. But they had accepted that their interests took them to different parts of the world, and it was fine, and they all made an effort to connect when they could. But here… leaving this stupid little town suddenly felt impossibly painful. 

His thoughts returned to Mai. He felt a warmth of joy and admiration, like spring sun inside him, when he thought of her. To be fair, Ty Lee was great and admirable as well, but he wasn’t that objective. There was Mai, and there was everybody else. At least in certain ways, concerning him. He felt like a mess. A happy mess, and a sad mess at the same time. He had no idea what he should do about it or whether he should do anything – she seemed to have a perfectly normal life here, with friends, and family and work, and everything, and falling on his knees and tearing her away from it was as bad of an idea as him dropping all his life to stay here. And yet the idea to stay here was more and more attractive with every minute. He fell asleep, not knowing what to do.

In the morning, the life continued. Mai and Ty Lee appeared with tea, coffee, and lots of baked goodies suitable for breakfast, ostensibly for the whole police department. Detectives Chan and Ming ecstatically chomped on the baked goodies before going through the statements the girls gave the night before. A legal counsel for the sniper showed up, rather nervous. 

Zuko gulped down tea and some sweet buns, and started unexcited process of talking to the sniper. The only thing they found out by now was his name – Vachir. He had a pretty colorful biography, but no criminal record, which was a really curious thing. He denied any malice or intention of hurting anyone and claimed he hunted mutant rat-turtles in the sewers. 

“And pigeon-gators?” unhelpfully suggested the sniper’s lawyer. 

“And pigeon-gators!” 

They were in for a long difficult conversation. Colonel Shinu joined them, giving Zuko a time to rest and collect his thoughts. 

Zuko went out, stretching and wishing he could still smoke. He took several deep breaths; a small flame appeared in his palm and flickered out. 

He reached an entrance area, and saw Mai and Ty Lee laughing and flirting with the officers, ready to leave. Well, Ty Lee did the laughing and flirting part, Mai just stood there with a smile. Which in Zuko experience amounted to the same thing, but could also mean she was in a good mood.

And then everything exploded.

Zuko couldn’t appropriately recount the events later. The glass and pieces of everything were flying and falling, he was running – or wasn’t? Could he be running in the circumstances? But it felt like running. Everyone was shouting or screaming or both. It felt like utter chaos. But when Zuko got to the broken down door, things became clear – there was one attacker, who was shooting lasers from his forehead. Zuko blinked in disbelief, and realized that the attacker wore some kind of a weaponized helmet. 

Now that he was in the open, police officers were shooting at him, without much success. At least they were hiding behind riot shields or the wall and were more or less safe. 

“Now we could really use a sniper. Pity we cannot use the one we have.” Chan said from under the desk. 

“Yeah he just as likely to shoot us and claimed it was an accident.” Zuko swore under his breath. 

“I cannot reach him with a knife at this distance. I might try but the accuracy won’t be the same.” Mai was by his side, and he wasn’t much surprised.

“What about with a sniper’s rifle?” Chan asked.

“I’ve never used one, and I am not sure how to knock him down without killing with a rifle. I threw a knife in a person yesterday for the first time, because I was so scared to think.”

“Why don’t we use our new riot gear?” Detective Ming shouted at them from under another desk.

“It is experimental. Might not work.” Chan seemed to know what she was talking about.

“Then we have nothing to lose. It’s basically a gun that shoot a net. You can’t kill with it, it only suppose to immobilize. On the other hand, it might not work against lasers.”

“Ok.” Mai kept glaring at their attacker. Knowing the power of Mai’s glare Zuko was sure the attacker might drop dead without a gun.

Chan left and soon reappeared with a funny looking gun with a huge opening. “See, it shoots something that’s soft and sticky. The problem, that if you hit his body, it won’t do anything, and if you hit his face, he might choke on it. You need to get his forehead.”

“Ok, I think I can do it.” Mai took the gun, looking unsure, and started targeting. 

“I think it has an automatic targeting system, but it’s a rather new thing, and we never have riots here, so we don’t really know whether it works.”

“No, it’s fine I can target him myself.” Mai whispered. 

She took and breath and pushed a button. A gray lump flew out of it straight into the attacker's head, where it hit the top of his forehead and started flow down covering all the laser shooting openings. 

Lasers stopped, and the police could run to the attacker slowly turning into cocoon. “It worked!” Chan screamed.

Zuko breathed out, and only now noticed that his hand was on Mai’s back all this time. He hid the hand behind his back under the stares of everyone around him and felt himself blushing.

“So, what’s the damage?” He heard people talking behind him.

“The roof is thankfully is still in place, and the walls, well, the walls and windows would have to be fixed.”

There were several injured, mostly in the initial explosion, but none too badly. 

It was going to be a busy day.

After work they gathered at the bar – Detectives Chan and Ming, Ruon-Jian who came by after the explosion, Mai and Ty Lee, other police officers who where not on duty, deadly tired or seriously injured, even colonel Shinu. The town police didn’t have that much excitement, according to him, since his youth, when he tried to rob an ice cream parlor with fireworks. Zuko politely disbelieved him, but the impression the morning events left on everyone was indeed immense.

One of the biggest consequences for Zuko was that the sniper who cheerfully maintained his lack of intention to hurt anyone upon learning that he was almost blown to smithereens, confessed everything – that he was indeed hired to take down Zuko, and while the names were not named, he knew that he was hired by an official in the Capital City who wanted everything to be quiet. And his previous job was to provide rest to an old lady. He was that annoyed with his employer for not trusting him to keep quiet, that he felt no reason to keep quiet. He did bargained that he won’t be charged with intent to kill Zuko – and as they had not much to support that charge, they agreed.

Then Northern Water Tribe detective sent a message that they could connect Zhao to the evidence that they had. 

Then… it was clear, that everything that could be done here, he had done, and in the morning he flew back to the Capital city to deal with Zhao. There was just this night for celebrations and saying goodbyes. 

Zuko looked around. Everyone around him were enjoying themselves. 

On Ji showed up and immediately joined in the fun. 

“Hey, where are your kids?” Ruon-Jian asked while giving her and everyone else ridiculously complicated fruity cocktails.

“I ran to Mai’s house, said that I needed to check on Mai, and her aunt agreed to watch over the girls.”

“I hope you didn’t promise to much in payment for that. She will extract it, you know.” Mai waved to her.

“It’s all worth it.”

Zuko walked around and slightly apart and occasionally joined the small talk, or just stood by. Ty Lee was cheerfully explaining something to colonel Shinu and On Ji, probably her chi-bending trick.

Mai was drinking with Chan. 

“You know, this whole thing made me realize how happy I am.” Chan was saying to loudly not to overhear.

“Really?” Mai seemed mildly curious.

“Yes, I mean I am lucky that everything in my life happened the way it did. Getting in the argument with my dad and granddad, joining the police force out of stubbornness, being sent here, falling in love with Ruon-Jian and growing closer with him every day.”

“You are lucky.”

“What about you?”

“I make do, day by day, you know. Life is not bad. Not going to fall in love though.” Huh? What did she mean?

“I can see that. No new love can settle in a place so firmly occupied.” Apparently Chan understood her.

“Yeah, well. One gets used to the feeling.” Mai finished off her cocktail and took another one.

And then Zuko saw that he couldn’t possibly leave without talking to Mai. Really talking about them. He took his phone and wrote a message:

“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with Chan. Can we talk now?”

In a minute, the reply arrived:

“Ok. I’ll meet you in five minutes outside.”

Zuko hurriedly said goodbyes, paid for his drink, and left.

When he looked back, the party was still in full bloom. The last thing he saw was Ty Lee hugging On Ji and saying “I think it is a beginning of beautiful friendship”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still polishing the last chapter, so most likely post in on the weekend.


	7. Life isn’t Fairytale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mai and Zuko discuss their future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we'll see if I was right giving this story the "M" rating.
> 
> written for the AU Maiko week  
> day 7 prompt is "Folklore"

They walked together through dark and empty streets. Mai waited for Zuko to say anything. But he looked like he could explode before he managed to find the right words.

“You wanted to talk.”

“Yes.” He kept walking. 

Well, she could wait. She steered their walk away from unpleasant alleys and garbage containers. Zuko didn’t seem to care where he was walking, but Mai was against having important conversations near garbage bins. 

“When I came here, I thought it was one of the most boring town I’d ever seen.” Zuko finally said. “And now I don’t want to leave it ever.”

“Why is that?”

“Because of you.”

“You were right at the beginning. It is quite possibly the most boring town in Fire Nation. There is nothing for you to do here, Zuko. Except, possibly, me.” She added after a beat and heard a chuckle. 

“That’s actually is quite a lot.”

‘but you could do me anywhere’ she thought, but decided it was too crude to say aloud. Maybe later.

“Mai, I don’t want to mess up your life.”

“Oh, please. What do you even know about my life, and why are you so sure I want it to stay like it is?”

“ehh” Zuko started saying something and stopped.

“May be you should ask me - about my life, instead of admiring it from the distance?” 

Zuko was silent for a beat. “I have already messed up this conversation, haven’t I?”

At least he learns fast. She stopped, stepped as close as possible and looked straight at him. “Let’s start from the beginning. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He looked so utterly, delightfully, serious and quiet, and Mai felt herself breaking into millions of tiny pieces and reconstructing again, stronger and more herself. She raised her arms, pulled Zuko closer and kissed him.

The kiss lasted long, making up for all the eight years in between their last moment together and now. It was full of hunger and tenderness and certainty. Zuko was holding her in his arms, and she was holding him. 

They broke off the kiss and stood apart, trying to catch their breath. 

“The love was never a problem though. We still need to have an actual adult conversation, right?”

Zuko chuckled. “Right. Wait till my brain starts working again.”

“Sure.” They walked towards the beach. Wind blew in their faces, tasting of salt and smoke, and Mai felt it was clearing her head from worries and alcohol. 

“I loved every moment I spent near you, Mai. I don’t want those moments to stop, ever again. I don’t know what else to tell you. I want us be together, but have no idea how can we make it work this time. I am ready to move here if you want it.” 

He blurted it almost angrily, and Mai tried to collect her thoughts leaving the silence between them stretch and fill the Universe.

“What… what do you want, Mai?”

“I am 26, and I still have no idea what I really want to do with my life. I live, I stumble onto things, some I like, and I keep doing them, some I don’t like, and I avoid them. But I don’t really have a focus on what I want my life to be. I am sure of one thing – I want to be beside you. I envy your certainty about your life and your goals. Working with you on that case I felt like I unlocked a new amazing level. I am not saying I’ve got a taste for police work. But I want us to be together. Just not here. Really.” 

“Would you move to the Capital city?”

“Well, not tomorrow, but yes.”

“But what about your friends, your work, Tom-Tom?”

“Friends… I meet with Suki once a year, and with Ty Lee when I can. Neither lives nearby, so I am sure I can see my friends. It would be harder to help On Ji, but we can think of something. And Tom-Tom… Yes, I don’t want to leave him alone with our mother, but I am not ever going to disappear from his life no matter where I live.”

Silence again hang between them as they both were trying and discarding the right words. Mai wasn’t sure the right words existed. 

“We may not work out, still, again. But we should try.”

“I think we will work out this time, Mai. I...”

They were horrible at conversations, still and forever.

“We will take it day by day and see what happens.” She held his hand in hers and squeezed warmly.

“Good enough for me.”

“I am not leaving your side until you have to fly tomorrow. Fair warning.”

His arm went around her shoulders “Fair warning in return. I am probably going to fall asleep as soon as I get to my bed.”

Mai snorted. “Don’t worry, it’s not like I am picking up a guy in a bar for a bit of good time. We are just going to enjoy our time together, and sleep is very enjoyable.”

“Wait. Do you often pick up guys in bars?” Trust Zuko to get stuck on that line.

“In this town? Never. Too high chance to get an idiot, a relative, or both.”

They slowly made their way back into the town center, to Zuko’s hotel. On their way they stopped by a pharmacy to pick up some supplies in case they didn’t fall asleep. The night was cold and quiet. Mai sent a message to Ty Lee not to worry for her and got a suggestive picture in return. She rolled her eyes, showed it to Zuko and they shared a laugh. It was all good. 

At the room, Zuko ran to the shower, and she ran through room service options before settling and ordering tea and sweets. When she walked out of the shower, Zuko was sitting on the floor and warming the tea in his hands. She sat by his side. 

“Tea?” he offered her a cup.

“Thank you.” She picked up the cup of tea and started sipping. It was not entirely bad, for hotel tea. 

“I suppose they didn’t have fruit tarts here.” Zuko nodded at the large plate of tiny cakes she was eating. 

“These are just as delicious. You don’t fall asleep yet, I see.”

“Yeah, the tea woke me up a little.”

Mai couldn’t stop herself glancing downward, at the part of Zuko covered by a towel. He noticed her glance and laughed, and pulled her closer.

Tea, however, reminded Mai about another thing. “Zuko, I am worried about you confronting Zhao. Can you please call your uncle and ask him for advice?”

“You don’t trust me to do it myself?”

“You are fair and honorable, and expect people to behave the same way. I don’t really know what this Zhao is like, but I can already see that he is desperate and hates you more than cares about his safety. Please, do me a favor. It fact, you can give me your uncle Iroh’s contact information, and I’ll call him myself.”

“Ok, I promise. I’ll call him tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” She leaned in and rubbed her cheek on his shoulder. Somehow it was hotter than her hottest fantasies – to sit there dressed only in towels, drink tea and talk.

Eventually they ended up on the bed and spent good time getting re-acquainted with each other bodies. Mai felt happy just touching him and being touched and kissed, and the fact that Zuko remembered what she liked, and the fact that she remembered how to make him moan. The tiredness of the long day did overcome them soon enough, and the last thing she remembered falling asleep in his hands was the whisper “love you.”

She probably answered “love you too, sleep already”, but maybe it was already her dream. 

First thing Mai saw when she woke up was Zuko’s grin.

“How long have you been staring at me?” She asked grumpily.

“Not long.” He laughed. “You look adorable.”

Mai made a face at that. “How long till you have to leave?”

“Long enough for a quiet breakfast.”

Mai climbed on top of him. She did it without any conscious thought, just to bask in his warmth for longer, but his arms settled on her lower back so nicely, and his lips were so close to hers, it was impossible not to kiss him.

Zuko didn’t miss his flight at the end, but he did have to forgo his breakfast. They said their goodbyes at the airpark, and Mai reminded him about the promise to talk to Iroh before going home. 

There was so much to do, and Mai felt spring in her steps, and almost a desire to burst into a song. ‘Ty Lee would never stop laughing at me if I do,’ she thought and giggled. She had to have her breakfast, she had to talk to old Iroh, she had to talk to Ty Lee about everything, she had to start planning her future. The future that finally looked interesting.

_A month later, the Capital city._

Aang and Katara were sitting on the sofa and playing with the baby, while Suki, Toph, Sokka and Zuko played the “Lemur Air Race” on the console. Life was full of busy noises and Sokka’s squeals when the girls were winning again and again. The door bell rang, and Zuko went on to open it.

“Hello, Zuko.” 

“Mai.” 

They must have stood there like idiots for a long time, because Suki jumped over and hugged Mai first. “Mai! I had no idea you were coming! That’s awesome! Come in, come in, you need to meet everyone.” Mai followed her, grinning, which was a rare look on her, but made her so much more beautiful. Zuko felt stupid for not saying anything, so he picked up Mai’s bag and followed, allowing Suki make necessary introductions. 

“How was your travel?” He finally managed to pull Mai into a hug and kiss her. 

“Fine.” She settled comfortably in his embrace. “I am glad I am here.”

“Are you moving in?” Toph asked.

“Eventually, I guess. I cannot move until the end of the school year, but I have a couple interviews at schools here. It’s a cool helmet you are wearing.”

“Thanks.” Toph was always happy to talk about her work. “We’ve made it at my company. It allows me to see in the game, even better that regular folk.”

“Technically, it’s your parents’ company.” Katara noted, continuing their eternal argument. 

“I am the executive partner! Therefore it’s mine.”

“Do you want to play?” Sokka offered his controller to Mai. “I am tired of losing in this stupid game, I’ll go to look for some food. Do you like Water Tribe cuisine?”

“Nobody loves Water Tribe cuisine except for Water Tribe people, you know it, Sokka.” Suki said.

“Well, Mai apparently has weird tastes, so maybe she does.”

“Just bring the usual.” Suki kissed him and went back to the game.

Sokka disappeared.

“You don’t mind us, do you?” Aang suddenly asked Mai. “You probably wanted to see Zuko alone, not the whole gang.”

“No, Zuko told me you were going to be here, and you all planned your visit in advance, and I have the interviews, but I think it is for the better.”

“We were talking about that thing with Hama and Zhao. What an amazing international scandal you’ve discovered!” 

“I don’t know whether I can call it amazing.” Zuko was ready to leave the whole thing behind him. 

“We were amazed, therefore - amazing.” Sokka returned. “I’ve ordered the foodstuffs.”

Aang continued. “Katara wants to write a book, about the history of Water and Fire nations relationships. I have no idea where she plans to get the time, with the baby and her medical stuff.”

“It must be brought to life! Hama’s death should not be forgotten.”

“Hama did try to blackmail Zhao with her findings though. If she just wrote a book she might have been still alive.” Zuko said.

“People who suffered deserve the memory.” Katara was ready to fight, but everybody there agreed with her.

“I can help you with research here, if you want. I have time.” Mai offered.

“At least we don’t have to hear about Zhao any more.” Toph yawned. “That story ended for good, and I can’t be happier. Was getting tiresome, all Zuko’s complains about his boss.”

“Zhao’s just underestimated Zuko. Don’t ask him to accomplish something if you really don’t want it accomplished. Zuko has a mean focus.” Mai smiled and kissed him, and Zuko proved that he indeed had a very good focus by kissing Mai back.

Through the fog of the their long kiss he heard Katara laughing “Just imagine if anyone told Zuko to find the Avatar!!”

And the ridiculous suggestion drowned in the sea of his friends’ laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Lemur Air Race" is basically Mario cart, but with flying lemurs.
> 
> it was strange two months when I lived with this story in my head - it was a good distraction from all the pandemic related stress to invent an AU world for the atla characters, but it the lack of free time and abundance of stress made it harder to focus on writing it.
> 
> Still, I enjoyed it a lot, and I hope you enjoyed it, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes on the world:
> 
> It’s still the Avatar world, but in the modern times. Think maybe a hundred years after times of Korra, technology-wise
> 
> Technologically it’s close to our world, in some regards it’s more advanced, it some regards, it’s less.
> 
> Nobody has seen any Avatar after Roku died. But 100 years war didn’t happen, because Sozin died earlier, too, and Air Nomads are around.
> 
> The thing is – bending is much weaker, and human benders and nonbenders basically all rely on non-bending technologies. 
> 
> The ages of most characters are adjusted. Mai is 26, Zuko is 27 here. Azula and Ty Lee are 26, Sokka and Suki are 27, Katara, is 26, Aang and Toph are 25, there were prodigies and entered university younger than most kids.
> 
> The first day prompt is “Noir”.


End file.
